German-Finnish equipment vendor Nokia Siemens Networks (NSN) has merged its operating units in the Middle East and Africa to provide a more “integrated” service to large operator clients across the region.

Igor Leprince, who was previously head of the company’s Middle East business, has taken charge of the new MEA unit.

In turn, that will form a part of the Asia, Middle East and Africa (AMEA) cluster led by executive board member Ashish Chowdhary.

Some of NSN’s (Helsinki, Finland) largest customers – which include Bharti Airtel (New Delhi, India), Etisalat (Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates), Qtel (Doha, Qatar), Saudi Telecom (Riyadh, Saudi Arabia), Vodacom (Bloemfontein, South Africa) and Zain (Kuwait City, Kuwait) – run networks across the entire region, and the NSN restructuring is designed to better meet their needs.

“MEA is a key market for Nokia Siemens Networks, where we have identified an increasing demand from operators for advanced mobile broadband technologies including TD-LTE and FDD-LTE technologies,” said Leprince.

“With our focus on being the world’s specialist in mobile broadband through product innovation and quality processes, we are absolutely committed to helping our MEA customers realize their vision of becoming advanced mobile broadband providers,” he said.